Dixie IA Question
Pardon me if this has already been talked about. With the new firehawk fleet CALFIRE is transitioning to, will they be flying night ops like la county does down south ( The District’s operational goal is to
have water-dropping aircraft capable of operating in extreme conditions in mountainous terrain 24 hours a day—LA County)
And do you think during first night of the Dixie burning period a firehawk could have made good work of taking out the heat?
The word is they will be, when everyone gets trained. I think they will be training next winter on it.
Night flying is one goal CF has. But before that happens many hours are required to make that a reality. They are still getting used to their new ships. I don’t have the exact hours required but it will be substantial. The southern ships will be trained up to perform night ops. 301, 305, 406, 404 and 106. I believe 202 will be the only northern ship that will be night tank/night vision qualified besides 106. Hemet Ryan has started the process of having 4 pilots assigned to the base. 2 one per day, 12 hour shifts.
Several agencies that are night flying qualified now have proved their worth. So yes it probably would have helped, but the most important question they have to ask every single time is risk vs. gain. Is it critical that they drop water on weeds? LACoFD, LFD, ORC, SND, KRN, VNC, ,and SBC are continuing to train for more night flying so if it saves lives, saves critical infrastructure, and state resources CF will be there as soon as fully trained and qualified.
I see the new 406 is flying the Dixie fire, has it not been released to BEU/Bear Valley/Hollister yet?
It’s on the fire as 0DF, not 406. I believe they’re just hoist standby and not running drops.
They launched them when the crew’s rig went oos and they had to hike out with AA guiding them the other day. AA requested the “rescue ship” (0DF was the designator) but was able to cancel them when the crew made it to the road where other crews could get them out safely.
Thank you all for the intel on the hawks.
Ok ok. Some hypotheticals with FIREHAWK operations.
Let’s say all North Region FIREHAWKS were night ops certified (pilots).
Question: Would anyone of them been requested for night ops on the first night of the CALDOR?
If they were committed to on an existing incident (for day ops) on another fire, could they divert ( for the new start) with north ops hoping it can do good on the initial night of the fire?
Will they have enough pilots for each ship to cover day and night hours?
All night flying ships will be double crewed so t he there are 2 pilots on duty for 24hr operations to meet night flying criteria. I believe all CSR ships will be night qualified, believe only 106 and 205 will be night flying ships, BUT this could change based on a lot of things. So just be flexible as things change. And their us a lot of things that need t happen before any of the CF Ships are cleared to fly a night.
Should be easy to divert a closer ship since there a 2 pilots on a day for those ships. But that kind of question as it well as others will need to be addressed before any night flying takes place. Hemet-Ryan helicopter 301 has 3 pilots assigned there now so that is a positive step forward.
Any intel on a incident with 205 yesterday and a unscheduled alternative landing outside Vina? local Butte group mentioned it yesterday
Reported as engine failure. No injuries and no damage to the ship reported thus far.
I understand 205 lost #1 engine while doing hoist training.
Blue sheet just came out. Doing hoist training, not complete loss of engine but did lose power in one causing it to lose altitude while a rescuer was hanging under the ship. Rescuer made contact with ground then copter gained altitude again but began a descent. Emergency cable cutter was engaged, releasing rescuer ( minor injuries and released from hospital). Copter made a successful landing, no damage.
For clarification, a calfire super 205 only has one turbine. This was not one of the fire hawks as I understand
No, it was the new S70i Firehawks
10 4
I misread as one of the 205s
…no worries